He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1950, and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1956. From 1951 to 1961, Clark practiced law as an associate and partner in the law firm of Clark, Reed and Clark.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated him to be Attorney General of the United States. He was confirmed by the Senate and took the oath of office on March 2. Clark was one of Johnson's popular and successful cabinet appointments, being described as "able, independent, liberal and soft-spoken" and a symbol of the New Frontier liberals;[2] he had also built a successful record, especially in his management of the Justice Department's Lands Division; he had increased the efficiency of his division and had saved enough money from his budget so that he had asked Congress to reduce the budget by $200,000 annually.[2]

But there also was speculation that one of the reasons that contributed to Johnson making the appointment was the expectation that Clark's father, Associate JusticeTom C. Clark, would resign from the Supreme Court to avoid a conflict of interest.[7] Johnson wanted a vacancy to be created on the Court so he could appoint Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice. The elder Clark resigned from the Supreme Court on June 12, 1967, creating the vacancy Johnson apparently desired.

Clark served in the Attorney General until Johnson's term as President ended on January 20, 1969.

Clark played an important role in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. During his years at the Justice Department, he

More recently, Clark has been praised by some progressives and criticized by some conservatives in equal measure for his political views and publications. He has described the War on Terrorism as a war against Islam.[8]

Clark's International Action Center shared the same address (39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011) with a number of other organisations, such as International A.N.S.W.E.R, Millions for Mumia, the Iraq Sanctions Challenge, Peace for Cuba, Workers World Party, U.S. Out of Korea Committee, the Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Mideast and People's Rights Fund [13]

Clark has been criticized by both opponents and supporters for some of the people he agreed to defend, such as foreign dictators hostile to the US; Clark has stood by his clients regardless of their own admitted actions and crimes.[14]

In 2004, Clark joined a panel of about 20 prominent Arab and one other non-Arab lawyers to defend Saddam Hussein in his trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal.[15] Clark appeared before the Iraqi Special Tribunal in late November 2005 arguing "that it failed to respect basic human rights and was illegal because it was formed as a consequence of the United States' illegal war of aggression against the people of Iraq."[16] Clark said that unless the trial was seen as "absolutely fair", it would "divide rather than reconcile Iraq".[17]Christopher Hitchens claimed that Clark was admitting Hussein's guilt when Clark reportedly stated in a 2005 BBC interview: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt".[18]

Clark was not alone in criticizing the Iraqi Special Tribunal's trial of Saddam Hussein, which drew intense criticism from international human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch called Saddam's trial a "missed opportunity" and a "deeply flawed trial"[19],[20] and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the trial to be unfair and to violate basic international human rights law.[21] Among the irregularities cited by HRW, were that proceedings were marked by frequent outbursts by both judges and defendants, that three defense lawyers were murdered, that the original chief judge was replaced, that important documents were not given to defense lawyers in advance, that paperwork was lost, and that the judges made asides that pre-judged Saddam Hussein.[22] One of those outburst occurred when Clark was ejected from the trial after passing the judge a memorandum stating that the trial was making "a mockery of justice". The Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman shouted at Clark, "No, you are the mockery... get him out. Out"![23]

On March 18, 2006, Clark attended the funeral of Slobodan Milošević. He commented that: "History will prove Milošević was right. Charges are just that: charges. The trial did not have facts." He compared the trial of Slobodan Milošević with the one of Saddam Hussein by stating: "both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed." He characterized Slobodan Milošević and Saddam Hussein as "both commanders who were courageous enough to fight more powerful countries."[24]

In June 2006, Clark wrote an article criticizing US foreign policy in general, containing a list of 17 US "major aggressions" introduced by "Both branches of our One Party system, Democrat and Republican, favor the use of force to have their way." (the list includes the Clinton years) and followed by "The United States government may have been able to outspend the Soviet Union into economic collapse in the Cold War arms race, injuring the entire planet in the process. Now Bush has entered a new arms race and is provoking a Second Cold War..."[25]

On September 1, 2007, in New York City, Clark called for detained FilipinoJose Maria Sison’s release and pledged assistance by joining the latter’s legal defense team headed by Jan Fermon. Clark doubted Dutch authorities’ validity and competency, since the murder charges originated in the Philippines and had already been dismissed by the country's Supreme Court.[26]

Clark was a recipient of the 1992 Gandhi Peace Award, and also the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his commitment to civil rights, his opposition to war and military spending and his dedication to providing legal representation to the peace movement, particularly, his efforts to free Leonard Peltier. He also traveled to Belgrade to receive an honorary doctorate from Belgrade University.[33][34]

In 2002, Clark founded "VoteToImpeach", an organization advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush and several members of his administration. For the duration of Bush's terms in office, Clark sought, unsuccessfully, for the House of Representatives to bring articles of impeachment against Bush. Clark was an opponent of both the 1991 and 2003 Persian Gulf Wars. He is the founder of the International Action Center, which holds significant overlapping membership with the Workers' World Party.[35] Clark and the IAC helped found the protest organization A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).[36]

As early as March 19, 2003, the New Jersey newspaper and website The Independent took note of Clark's efforts to impeach Bush and others, prior to the start of the Iraq War. The paper noted that "Clark said there is a Web site, www.votetoimpeach.org, dedicated to collecting signatures of U.S. citizens who want President George W. Bush impeached, and that approximately 150,000 have signed to impeach, he said."[37] A conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, stated in an article dated February 27, 2004, "...Ramsey Clark's VoteToImpeach.org is a serious operation", and noted the group had run full-sized newspaper advertising on both coasts of the U.S. though the Standard also went on to describe them as also being a "angry petition stage."[38]

The organization, under Clark's guidance, drafted its own articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Attorney General John Ashcroft. The document argues that the four have committed, "...violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States." Votetoimpeach.org (as of 8 February 2007) claimed to have collected over 852,780 signatures in favor of impeachment.

After the Bush Administration left office in January 2009, Clark changed the website to IndictBushNow.org. That website is subtitled "Hold Bush & Co. Accountable for Their Crimes" and solicits donations for this purpose.

As a lawyer, Clark has also provided legal counsel and advice to prominent figures, including many controversial individuals.[42][43]

Regarding his role as a defense lawyer in the trial of Saddam Hussein, Clark said: "A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth."[44] Clark has stated that by the time he decided to join Hussein's defense team, it was clear that "proceedings before the Iraqi Special Tribunal would corrupt justice both in fact and in appearance and create more hatred and rage in Iraq against the American occupation...affirmative measures must be taken to prevent prejudice from affecting the conduct of the case and the final judgment of the court...For there to be peace, the days of victor's justice must end."[45]

A partial listing of persons who have reportedly received legal counsel and advice from Ramsey Clark includes:

About 100 survivors and relatives of the dead members of the Branch Davidian sect, whose Mount Carmel compound besieged by federal agents in a 51-day Waco siege in 1993, resulting in the death of about 80 members. Clark represented the plaintiffs in a suit alleging wrongful death and excessive force, giving an impassioned closing argument in which he called the siege "the greatest domestic law enforcement tragedy in the history of the United States." In a trial in 2000, the jury returned a verdict for the government.[53][54]

Liberian political figure Charles Taylor during his 1985 fight against extradition from the United States to Liberia, Taylor would later be convicted of crimes against humanity

Defense attorney for the three non-shooters (John Wesley Moore, b. 07/04/1975; Donald Antonio White, b. 11/06/1980; Troy White, b. 08/27/1976) tried for the February 7, 2000, murder of Baltimore County (Maryland) Police Officer Bruce Prothero. The three were convicted in two separate jury trials and are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole in the Maryland Department of Corrections.

Civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman, whose disbarment from federal court was sought based on his harsh criticism of a federal judge, William Duffy Keller, calling him an anti-Semite and saying he had been drunk on the bench, see Standing Committee on Discipline v. Yagman, 856 F.Supp. 1384 (C.D. Cal. 1994) (suspending Yagman for two years), reviewed by Standing Committee on Discipline v. Yagman, 55 F.3d 1430 (9th Cir. 1995)

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